NECA sues Reps to court for frequent summon of CEOs

Employers are not happy that company chiefs are being summoned frequently by lawmakers.

Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has sued the House of Representatives to court over the matter.

According to the group, the actions of the lawmakers have been undermining business sustainability and growth.

NECA is specifically praying the court to interpret Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution, which the lawmakers rely on to summon the CEOs in the name of oversight functions.

At a briefing in Lagos, its Director-General, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, accused members of the House, especially its committees, of disregarding court processes.

He contended that the continued disregard of court processes and persistent summons of chief executives of organised businesses to National Assembly was a disregard of the rule of law, and legislative rascality.

Oshinowo singled out the House of Representatives Committees on Labour, Employment & Productivity; Steel; Telecommunications; Public Safety and National Security; Ad-Hoc Committee on the Abuse of Pioneer Status by Companies and Ad-Hoc Committee Investigating Operational Activities of Telecommunications Equipment and Service Companies/Vendors in Nigeria, as the most guilty.

He lamented that petitions to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, over the activities of the committees had not been addressed till date, noting that to worsen the situation, members of the committees, instead of attending to CEOs directly, chose always to act through consultants.

He said: “All efforts at exploring the avenue of dialogue, advocacy and lobbying as evidenced through our several correspondences to the House and submissions at hearings and visits to the National Assembly seem to have been ineffective in protecting the economic rights and interest of businesses in this environment.”

Oshinowo said the legislators only listen to themselves and have become law unto themselves. “Therefore, we are left with no option but to seek judicial solace to protect enterprise rights and provide some reliefs to businesses by staving off the negative attitude of the legislators.

“Despite on-going court processes, organised businesses are still being inundated with torrents of summons/invitations and requests from the House of Representatives. Recently, the afore-mentioned committees have been very active in their disregard of court processes.

“In one instance, a company is currently being hounded with invitations from about seven committees of the House of Representatives on issues they could ordinarily have sorted out with regulatory institutions that supervise activities in that sector of the economy,” he said.

Oshinowo said NECA expects speaker of the House of Representatives, who is a lawyer himself, and by extension, all the committees and adhoc committees within the House of Representatives and the Clerk of the National Assembly, among others, who are all restrained by the sub-judice status of this case to exercise caution until the determination of the matter.

Oshinowo said: “We are even taken aback by the House Committees’ non respect for its own Standing Order IX Rule 5 on rules of debate, which provides as follows: “Reference shall not be made to any matter on which a judicial decision is pending, in such a way as might in the speaker’s opinion prejudice the interest of parties thereto”